Violet POV: ~ present time ~

The obnoxious ringing sound of a phone jolted me from my sleep.

It made me realize that, for the first time since Dabi and I have been engaging in this assignment, I was actually able to pass out comfortably in my bed, and wake up completely unscathed-

Wait.

Hold on.

I share a room with Dabi.

Am I completely unscathed?

At lightning speed-and before my body was really awake, I jolted my head up from the pillows, only now realizing I wasn't even on the pillow, but sprawled out face down and sideways across my bed.

Typical. I'm not the prettiest sleeper.

Upon forcing my crusty, sleep burning eyes open, I began looking around the room, bewildered and blurry, settling on the bed across from me and fuzzily seeing a body sleeping in it.

It's Dabi.

"Oh. Thank goodness. He didn't kill me. I'm alive." I sighed out groggily, saying the statement much louder than I meant to before smushing my head face down back into the bed-

"You won't be for long if you don't turn off that ringing." Dabi mumbled to me from his bed, voice thick and low with morning sleep as he refused to get up.

I groaned softly in annoyance to his demands, keeping my face nestled in the blankets as I focused on the direction where the ringing phone was coming from.

"Mm, nope. Your phone is the one ringing. I'm not answering that." I retorted crankily, letting out a small 'oof!' when a spare, soft pillow came flying at my back.

Yet, even after throwing the pillow, Dabi didn't argue with my logic as I heard him mumble dazed, tired curses before rolling over in his bed to feel his hand around the night table for his phone.

I could hear so incredibly clearly the sound of his hand sliding across the desk and banging on it to try and feel for his phone, before stuff began falling off the table and crashing to the ground.

"Oh my god-do you have to be so loud about it?!" I hissed at him in lethal exhaustion, grabbing one of the pillows off the correct side of my bed and slapping it over my head.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, is this bothering you? That's tragic." Dabi replied at full volume, deliberately smacking the desk loudly with his hand as the ringing continued.

I clawed my fingers into the squishy pillow as I kept it over my head, practically suffocating myself with it as I tried to drown out his presence.

Dabi chuckled smugly as he could tell I was getting irritated, finally grabbing his phone.

I let out another 'oof!' when I felt the object plop on my butt cheek a few seconds later, realizing he had thrown the phone at me.

"It's for you. The clown committee is calling. Take it outside, so I can go back to bed." He ordered bossily, before I heard his sheets rustling as he tried to get comfortable again.

The hero commission is calling? That's never a good sign. I bet it's about the chaotic mess of last night, with Ryo Harima.

"Oh, no you don't. Last time I checked, a partnership is two people." I muffled out from the sheets, before another pillow hit my back.

"Last time I checked, I dreamed about burning you to ash." Dabi muttered casually.

I threw the pillow off my head as I grabbed Dabi's phone off my butt, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I tried to wake myself up a bit.

"Last time I checked, that's illegal." I countered exhaustedly, lethargically scrambling up to sitting on my bed-

"And last time I checked, I still don't care." He snickered smugly, keeping his eyes closed as he rolled over onto his side to give me his back.

I held my tongue with another retort as I sat up straight in my bed, clearing my voice and answering Dabi's phone.

"Hello, this is Glimmer." I stated at full volume, ducking immediately as another pillow came flying towards my head.

"You must be deaf, because I'm pretty sure I told you to take it outside and shut the hell up-" Dabi started off, before I chucked the pillow back at him.

"And I told you, this is a partnership, so let's work together and have some nice teamwork!" I hissed out angrily, quickly shooting up to standing in the bed before Dabi lazily rolled over to face me in tired annoyance-

"Oh, Glimmer? Why are you answering Dabi's phone?-well, anyways I guess it doesn't matter. This is a conversation that pertains to both of you, after all." The boss explained nonchalantly, causing me to chuckle nervously as one does when they have to talk on the phone with their boss.

"Hah, oh! Yes, of course-I have Dabi right here, anyways. Lemme put the phone on speaker, so we can-" I started off, unable to finish as a pillow smacked me square in the face.

My head whipped back from the force, before I stumbled to the floor and landed on my butt.

I heard Dabi let out a small 'pfft,' of pleasant surprise as he clearly didn't mean to hit me in the face. But, he definitely wasn't sorry about it.

Somehow I'd managed to put the phone on speaker beforehand as the boss' voice rang throughout the room now.

"Hello? Dabi? Glimmer? Are you two there?" He asked curiously, before I wiped the pillow off my face in dwindling patience.

"Not for you, I'm not." Dabi called out disrespectfully, smirking smugly when I shot him a glare of annoyance.

"Please, disregard that, sir. Dabi and I are both present." I explained blandly, watching the stitched man give me the middle finger as he lethargically attempted to get out of his bed so he could leave the conversation before it started.

But, I've already had it up to here with this man.

"Hey-no. You-sit down." I growled at him, leaving the phone on the floor as I stood up with the pillow in my hand-

"Okay, good! Listen-" The boss started off cluelessly, as I stormed over to the edge of Dabi's bed, smacking him in the back of the head with the pillow before I could process what I'd just done.

His body whipped forward from the unexpected force, before he slowly turned around to face me.

Oh, well. Can't take it back now.

"Cutesy pillow fights aren't my style, sunshine. I'm much more of a murderer type-heh, you know unless the pillow fight is with some cute broads. Clearly, that's not you." He smirked, ripping the pillow out of my hand with too much force and causing me to tumble forward onto his bed.

"Shut up! Why are you so gross? I'm making sure you don't get out of this meeting again!" I wheezed in an attempt to be quiet, falling down atop his chest since I had nowhere else to fall-

"-I'll admit, you two. I was a bit nervous when I woke up and saw the headlines of the salt, crystal, and fire fight that took place in the middle of the city last night. After all, last I remembered my instructions for you were to kidnap Ryo Harima quietly..." The boss continued, as I tried to hold in my screams for having tumbled down on top of Dabi's body.

He let out a small curse under his breath when I slammed into him, instinctively gripping my waist to lift my body weight off him.

I felt my mind slap itself when the feeling of his firm, warm hands caused me to gasp.

"Oh? Throwing yourself at me already? Guess you're not so prude, after all." Dabi mocked out teasingly, slapping a hand over my entire face before pushing my body off his own.

I fell onto the other side of his bed, barely having the time to flip my messy hair out of my face as I saw Dabi shove the blankets over my head so I couldn't see, causing me to blindly reach out and grab ahold of his arm-

"But, it seems that you two can't do anything quietly as your little kidnapping mission has turned into the talk of the century. No civilian casualties though, so that's a good thing. I guess." The boss sighed, as Dabi was yanked back onto the bed by me.

"Get over here! You can leave when he's finished talking." I grunted out quietly, trying to pull the blankets off my head as I kept a hold on his wrist.

"Damn-why are you such a pain in my ass. I can't fucking stand you." He growled out, abruptly turning around with my pull to wrestle me off him.

"The feeling's mutual!" I bit back, feeling Dabi's legs straddle my attacking body down on the bed.

"Here, have some cotton for breakfast." He uttered nonchalantly, sloppily slapping my face with another pillow which caused me to accidentally slap him in the face with my hand.

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

I said accidentally. And I meant it! But, that doesn't mean I'm gonna back down now.

Regardless, I practically felt my soul leave my body as Dabi barely brushed one of his hands across the cheek I slapped, watching him return his darkened blue gaze down at me with a small laugh.

I'm dead.

"Now. That wasn't very heroic. They should really put you all the way back at the number seventy spot for that." Dabi drawled out mockingly, clicking his tongue as he caged my struggling torso between his thighs.

"I-I didn't even hit you that hard. Y...You started it!!" I justified, letting out a small wheeze of air as Dabi harshly squeezed his knees together against my rib cage to stop me from breathing.

But, it seems that was only meant to be a distraction for his next action.

Rather than use his fire to burn me to a crisp like I half expected him to, he hovered over me now, grabbing my flailing wrists and pinning them above my head to stop the incredibly stupid fight.

I gave my head a shake to get the blankets fully off my face, looking up at him in annoyance as he glanced down at me with irritation.

He chuckled lowly once he had me completely detained underneath him, letting out a small taunting hum as he squeezed my wrists together tightly.

"Aw, looks like you lost. That's a shocker. You know, normally this is the part where I'd kill you." He pointed out smugly, yet the lack of bloodthirst in his eyes let me know that he had no intent to follow up on that comment.

"I hate you." I simply huffed out, struggling underneath him to try and break free.

His muscles strained a bit harder as he kept me pinned to the bed, shooting me a small smirk as he said, "yeah, I figured."

My breathing was heavier than I would have liked from all the movements, but so was Dabi's as small pants of air fell from his mouth.

The air was hot. My muscles were tense. But, suddenly my senses were hyper focused.

I couldn't help but trail my eyes into his own for a moment at his incredibly close distance, feeling a strange warmth coil in my stomach when he looked back.

The sensation caused my heart to race and my palms to sweat.

His half lidded gaze pierced my own intensely, making me immediately aware of his body heat that was radiating through my clothes. He remained straddled on top of me, and the leftover scent of the hotel soap and shampoo from his shower last night mixed with his natural one, filling my nostrils with more pleasantness than I would have liked.

The smell went straight to my head and started to make me dizzy.

His sheets were unintentionally tangled around my body and my head was squished in the pillow he'd been sleeping on, only making his presence more intensified.

I swallowed thickly at the thin air I suddenly realized I was getting, cursing the fact that I felt my cheeks starting to heat up for absolutely no reason.

And unfortunately, that seemed to be the thing that really caught Dabi's attention.

The groggy sleep and smug irritation in his eyes slowly began morphing to disbelieving curiosity as his gaze traveled to the reddening of my cheeks. His brows raised a bit with question that made me wish I'd just keeled over and died right then and there.

It's not what you think!

"G..Get off." I breathed softly, mentally cursing myself for how unsure I sounded on that particular command.

I need him to get off. I don't want him to have the ability to study my reactions so closely.

Not to mention, it's just-it's inappropriate. I have a boyfriend-and Dabi's a murderer.

Trying to get a bit of my sanity back and relax, I gave my wrists a weak tug. But, instead of loosening his grip, Dabi's fingers curled around them tighter, pressing me deeper into the bed as he leaned down to close more distance.

"Oh my-Lord have mercy..." I squeaked out at his closing distance, sinking deeper into the bed to try and gain some space from him.

But, now, my back had arched and his torso was completely pressed against mine. The smell of soap and musk is even stronger in my nostrils, clouding my senses even more with his presence while I'd suddenly become completely entrapped in his warmth.

My heart is racing too fast. It shouldn't be. Not for him-

"Now, why would I get off when you keep trying to hit with me those chicken arms? What, you can dish it out, but you can't take it? That's pathetic, little sapphire." He taunted, gaining back his smug exterior while he spoke. Yet, he also looked like he was enjoying this moment a little too much.

I grit down on my teeth at his words, trying to ignore the way I felt the muscles of his abdomen contracting against my own.

There goes that warm flip of my stomach again. I hate that.

I hate him. Remember that.

My face heated up more at the feeling, causing me to cringe in embarrassment as I refused to decipher the physical language my body was trying to tell me.

"T-They aren't chicken arms, you know! I have a very strict workout regiment, thank you very much." I spat out stubbornly, leaving out the parts where I skip a lot of the exercises in the regiment that Endeavor gave me.

"Not strict enough obviously." He whispered cockily, taking his lip between his teeth as he barely began to heat up his hands around my wrists.

And while his silent threat of fire and this compromising position should have been enough to scare me, it didn't.

What did scare me....was the next flip my stomach did when Dabi bit his lip like that.

Shit. Why am I feeling like this? I don't even get this flustered around my own boyfriend.

I opened my mouth to speak, closing it a few moments later as I didn't trust my voice to come out even-

"Hello? Dabi? Glimmer? Are you still there? Hellooo?" The boss' voice called out from the phone on the floor, making me realize I'd completely missed everything he said.

And I'm starting not to care, the longer Dabi looks at me like that.

No one's ever looked at me like that before. I can't explain the look, but my god it's one that makes me feel so damn desired in this moment. Yes, I know we hate each other. Yes I know I'm probably reading way too much into it, due to our lethally close proximity.

But, that doesn't stop him from involuntarily....pulling me in, even if he's not trying to...

"H-Huh?" I breathed out distractedly, trying and failing not to feel Dabi's intoxicating presence consuming my body and my brain-

Wait, no. Not intoxicating.

....right? Right....

Dabi's eyes continued meeting my own in heated silence now. His face no longer looked so smug and obnoxious. It was more intrigued as he studied my obviously flustered state with that continued unreadable look of his own.

He didn't pull away. I didn't ask him to.

Instead, his hands slowly continued to heat up around my wrists the longer he looked at me, but for once, it actually looked like he didn't realize he was still activating his quirk.

His breaths deepened ever so slightly as he continued meeting my gaze, before I felt his fingers unintentionally digging into my wrists a little harder.

My mouth fell ajar a bit at the heated, pressured sensation, and even though he was so clearly watching me so very intently, I couldn't help it when my eyes barely glazed over in half lidded silence for his intoxicating closeness, doing my best to pull myself out of such a tempting moment and come back to reality.

I hated that my slow breaths had gradually started turning into shallow huffs for no reason. A change in breath that Dabi noticed, as he leaned just a little closer to feel it hit his mouth.

As a nervous reaction, I subtly swiped my tongue along my dry bottom lip. But, as subtle as I meant it, Dabi's ocean eyes immediately trailed down to the movement, barley pinning my wrists a little harder to the bed as he slowly started to study my lips in a way that looked like he might wanna-

"Is the connection bad, or something? Hello? Glimmer?" The boss stated again, causing me to inhale sharply now as I snapped back to the present time and instinctively attempted to stand up.

Caught off guard by my quick movements, I was easily able to break out of Dabi's hold, gently shoving his dazed self to the side of the bed as I hopped off it to grab the phone from the floor.

"S-Sorry, sir. Uh-yeah, the connection was bad." I lied once I'd put the phone to my ear, ignoring Dabi's following gaze as I slowly began to pace back and forth in the room.

And get my cheeks and body to calm down, because what was that all about-

"Alright, no worries. I was going to ask you two to come into the office, anyways, and give me your report on Ryo Harima. Can you be here in around an hour?" The boss asked, causing me to mentally facepalm at his words.

I was supposed to write up the report on the mission last night, but instead I got distracted by talking outside with Dabi.

Regardless, I cleared my throat and responded rather quickly, not wanting the boss to think I'm incapable.

"Y-Yes, of course! We'll be there within the hour then." I reassured not confidently, quickly hanging up Dabi's phone and tossing it onto his bed.

I remained standing in the middle of the room as my focus was elsewhere now, tapping my fingers against my lips in thought as I mentally ran through the report I was about to write-

"You look like you have to take a shit." Dabi pointed out casually, interrupting my focus-but, it's okay because I already have an idea.

He seemed to have bounced back to normal incredibly fast. Almost like our weird moment never even happened.

Feeling my eyes light up with my creative side, I briskly walked over to our work station in the corner, pulling out the laptop, some writing supplies and board tacts to begin creating the report.

"Be ready to go within the hour! I should finish up with this fairly quickly." I explained to Dabi distractedly, not even looking up at him as I began laying out all of my evidence on my bed.

...and because I really didn't want to look at him after what has just happened. What did happen?

Luckily, he seemed to save me any more embarrassment I might be feeling, letting out a small scoff as he finally pulled himself out of the bed and made his way towards the bathroom.

"Don't count on it." He called over his shoulder, and I just couldn't help it when my eyes trailed back up to him now, involuntarily gliding my wandering gaze down his frame with a quick look, before immediately shaking it off and returning to my work.

I was about to mentally reprimand myself for the tempting thoughts that had barely begun to cloud my head, before I quickly stopped.

After all, what's the point? It's not like these thoughts mean anything, anyways. I'm sure I just miss my boyfriend.

Dabi POV:

No, it's not like I was gonna kiss her or anything. You're crazy to think so.

After all, I only meant to intimidate her a little by pinning her to the bed. I even heated up my hands at first around her wrists to try and really scare her, but I guess I started letting my emotions get the better of my quirk after a few minutes, huh. She didn't get burned though, so no harm done.

It's not my fault. Grape kept throwing pillows at me, running her mouth way too early in the morning. Then, to top it all off, she slapped me in the face.

No dumbass has ever been bold enough to slap me in the face. Not since Touya died and I became this, anyways. It was surprising. And, sure, maybe this sounds a little masochistic, but it intrigued me.

Normally, people-hero, villain, or civilian piss their pants at the first sight of me, and then you got Grape of all people being the one to try and put me in my place? Hmmm.

And, yeah, there were probably better ways to intimidate that didn't involve pinning her to the bed. I'm known for my intimidation tactics of course, I'm sure I could have find a much more effective way to scare her a little after she slapped me...

But...the more threatening I tried to be, the closer I came towards her face. The closer I came towards her face, the more I forgot my reason for doing so. The more I felt her body sprawled underneath my own.

And sure, it's not the first time by a long shot that I've had a woman underneath me, but holy shit did it feel different when it was Violet-and nothing even happened.

Then, the more I realized I had her arms pinned above her head, unconsciously feeling as if I wanted them to stay there while I leaned even closer.

But, the worst part of all-the part that really made me lose a few brain cells for a moment, was the look on her face.

It was a familiar look, one she always wore when we were younger. One she wore when I'd come to the conclusion that she had a crush on me as kids. It's not as if she was very good at hiding it to begin with.

Like I said, it was a familiar look. But, also different. Better, because somehow, the look had also grown up with her.

By that, I mean that the flustered, innocent adoration that used to show through her eyes for me as a child, wasn't so innocent this time. It was definitely flustered, but it was anything but innocent.

It was the look of someone who wanted to be kissed. Yeah, I've never actually kissed anyone, but I've slept with enough women to recognize the signs. It was a look that held underlying depths of desire. It made me immediately realize that Violet Sasaki is not as much of a goody two shoes as she likes to think she is, and holy hell does that fascinate me way more than it should.

After all, I've been around plenty of legitimately evil women in my days, and you're telling me that the idea of Violet Sasaki's possible devious side is the thing to get me going?

And, blame it on my oh-so adorable childhood crush, but seeing that look on her face, seeing her golden eyes glazing over in a naughty way I didn't think she was even capable of, did things to me that made me distracted.

Suddenly, my mind had been right back to where we left off eight years ago, right before I left.

But, that's Violet for you. That's how she is. She pulls you in with the little things. She does it without knowing. She does it without trying, and that fact alone just makes her so much more....alluring.

That's why I have to be aware of it. That's why I have to make sure she doesn't pull me in again. She already did it to me once as kids. Why the hell should I let history simply repeat itself and allow her to do it again?

That would sure as hell be a waste of time, especially considering that it's one of the reasons I ended up 'dying' in the first place.

If I'd never realized my feelings for her that day, I might still be 'alive.' Not that an option such as that sounds more desirable, anyways.

But, the point is, by allowing myself to give in to my desires for Violet, it just means that dear old dad has won the game. It means that he was right all along about me being able to live a happy, ordinary life with her.

It means that he was right in trying to get me to give up being a hero. It means I failed.

It's sad-not-sad to say that Violet's been doomed in my eyes, from day one. No matter what she does, she forever has a giant fucking mark on her head as someone I can never be with, unless I want to admit that dear old dad was right about my biggest life failure of all.

Besides, last I checked-and that was yesterday, she's too busy fucking my brother to even notice!

Not that I really give a shit about their relationship. I know Violet, and as far as I'm concerned that's a relationship built on her pity for my simp little brother.

If I'd actually planned to go after her-and I'm not, I wouldn't think twice about the fact that she's dating Natsu. I don't care. I'll take what I want. I don't give a shit about who it hurts.

But, you know what? I'm getting way ahead of myself for something that's never even going to happen. For once, I'll even blame the situation from a few minutes ago on myself and say that my own uncontrollable emotions of lust and desire had a mind of their own and imagined Violet's want for me.

I'll say that I imagined her cheeks flustering when I looked down at her. That I imagined her intoxicating scent buzzing up my senses like the greatest drug. A scent so familiar from the old days, but also so much more mature and desirable now.

I'll say that I merely imagined feeling that tight waist of hers against my stomach.That I imagined hearing those heavy pants fall from her lips in a rhythm that made me think how they'd sound from under me. In a different way....

Or that I imagined her tongue darting out to lick her bottom lip when she got nervous of my staring and her own lust, causing me to think about all the different ways I wanted to take her right there and devour her.

That I imagined ten years of unrequited feelings piling up on me like a tidal wave I'll lose control of.

Yeah, I simply imagined that. All of that.

Especially cause, right now, Violet's carrying on perfectly as if nothing ever happened.

She's across the room from me at this very moment, putting together her little mission report for our meeting with the clown committee-which we will be very late for by the way, since she's pretty far up in her own nerd zone right now. Not that I give a shit. I like pissing people off, so it's fine by me.

The funniest part, is that she hasn't even noticed the time, too busy mumbling to herself about which highlighter she should use to color coat which paragraph of her dumb, little notes. Her small fingers are drumming nervously against the desk, while she let out a small groan of annoyance. I bet she'll get more annoyed when she realizes we won't be on time to the meeting.

Heh. I like seeing her annoyed. It's cute.

She was standing and I couldn't help but catch the way she had her hip popped out slightly, unable to stop my eyes from caressing the full curve of her hip, and how it'd feel, squeezed between my hands.

How it would feel to run my fingers up her bare skin. How it would look to see her shudder from it and get goosebumps.

She's always been pretty. A guy can't help, but look.

I remained sitting in the chair across the room, keeping one foot crossed over my knee as I tried to shake the looming thoughts about her out of my head. God, she's so clueless, she doesn't even have any idea of what I'm thinking about right now. She's got no idea I'm checking her out, imagining all of these dirty, ridiculous things....

Now's a good time to stop-

Mm. But, then she flipped her hair and turned back around...not even sparing me a glance as she grabbed another picture, of what appeared to be Ryo Harima's salt quirk, before trying to find a place to put it on her giant stack of papers.

She was holding a pen and it did nothing to stop my ridiculous thoughts when she brought the pen to her lips, absentmindedly pressing it against them in a way that caused the tip to sink perfectly into the middle crease of her bottom one, only making me wonder how good that'd feel against my own mouth.

So good, I bet. With lips that soft and full...

What?

I can stare at her all I want. No harm in that. She's hot and I like hot girls. Nothing wrong with carnal attraction, it's only natural.

It's acting on that attraction that would be the problem, and I don't plan on doing that, so it's fine.

Yeah, that's right. It's all fine. It's not even possible for me to let Violet pull me back into her grasp again.

Besides, how can a man acknowledge feelings for someone, when he's unable to feel anything at all?

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chap. Thank you for your votes and comments! <3

Next Chapter Title: Color Coding Gets The Blood Pumping.